Multisport

Today’s ride started out with the usual fumbling around for the right combination of clothes and getting the weather report. My reports usually come from NPR. Leftist weather can be very optimistic. I go outside, lick my finger put it to the air, take a couple of tufts of grass to throw into the air to check for direction and speed. Poor man’s Doppler. I also lay down and listen to the earth. No real reason for this practice other than listening for the buffalo or tracking the Bartlet Gang, but this ritual completely freaks the neighbors out and as a cyclist I’m all about rituals.

I’m wary about today’s ride as I was cross country skiing the day away up at High Point, NJ yesterday. Any sport where you can wear Lycra is ok in my book. That said, major soreness. My groin went through the ringer. Gotta get a little tlc down in that thar region.

The whole motion of xc skiing works everything you have. The muscle groups that on the road, only get use when hoisting our bikes above our heads in some bizarre showing of defiance or adulation from cresting a hill with a grade of 2%, get fully used when skiing. It’s an excellent cross training activity for cyclists. Much better than the “empty beer can toss” or “competitive sleeping”.

I start my ride with my suspect parts. I pull over about 2 miles in to my ride to give a greeting card to a lady I do nothing more than wave to every morning I see her. Just to let her know that seeing her smile helped to make my morning. Random acts of kindness. Spreading goodwill from our community is thankless, but it’s the right thing to do anyway. I rode up the road a ways to get a holiday card from “Jerry The Crossing Guard”. These are the people in my neighborhood, in my neighborhood…..

Back to the business of staying upright and off hoods, grill, trunks, side doors and any other part on a car that could cause me harm.

Today, I believe I only broke about 15 traffic laws, which for a Monday, ain’t bad. When I skirt the law, I don’t endanger anyone else. Those days are gone. Drivers don’t always take that liberty with me. It gets old getting cut off, buzzed and my favorite; “the old speed and turn”, where someone comes flying past me and then wheels screeching, bangs a right. That’s classy. In traffic a motorists saw me coming today as we made eye contact and she “shut the door on me”. I use little seams to advance pass traffic all the time. She either needed that 8 inches to help her get to her destination sooner, or she wanted me to suffer like her. Not cool, no matter the intent. I don’t appreciate slamming on my brakes and essentially using trials skills, to safely navigate. It didn’t have to be, but that’s cycling in urban areas I guess. Once out in open water, I continued on to my final crest and felt my groin demand that I downshift and stay saddled. I concurred. Will spend day rubbing crotch shamelessly.